The Saga of the Move

Aug 10, 2009 10:19

It started out a normal moving day--house a mess of boxes, piles, trash, and dust.  My brother was with us, to help us finish loading boxes and pile everything in the truckbed and trailer.  My job was to scrub marks off the walls, clean the rooms, in general make the place look as good as possible so we could get most of our deposit back.  We started about 7 am

Everything was going fine until about 9 or so, when it started to get dark and cloudy.  In the desert, that means one thing--it's about to start raining.  So we took whatever wasn't on the trailer back in the house and covered everything ON the trailer as quick as we could.  The rest of the day was a mix of sunny and rainy.  Trying to beat the worst of the system (which stretched from Texas to Nebraska), we had to hurry to get the trailer and truck loaded up and everything out of the apartment so we could finish cleaning it.

Hurried and worried, I called a co-worker from the newspaper to help us out, a wonderfully sweet and funny girl named Jacey.  She came over by about noon and helped IMMENSELY, vacuuming every square inch of that apartment while I finished the bathroom and kitchen.  By the time she and I were done the boys had the trailer loaded and secured.

The landlady came over not much later and checked us out--we got all but the carpet-cleaning fee back, but we knew that was gone forever--but we got the remaining deposit amount back in full :D  Whoo!  So we swing by Sonic on the way out of town, because all we've eaten so far that day was a sausage biscuit from Mickey D's.  We were all ravenous.  Hubby tacked the tarp down a little more--we have probably 100 tie-down bungees now :P

On the way out of town (about 3 pm) I thought (THOUGHT) I saw something come loose from the tarp on the truckbed, but after getting turned around and going to look for it, we didn't see anything, so we continued on.  We stopped again 5 minutes later to resecure a part of the tarp that had flapped loose.  Then again in another five minutes.  Finally we got it tacked down and strapped securely enough that it would just bubble instead of flapping.

Everything ran smooth until we hit the Greensburg area at about 6.  We took a pit stop and headed out again, when they blew the tornado siren.  Just once, but it was enough to make my heart stop, considering ahead of us was that huge system.  Our couch was partially exposed due to the tarp being a little too short, so we didn't want to get it rained on.  We headed forward, after hearing from Dad that there was a break coming up over Pratt, and we could get another tarp at the Wal-mart there and cover over the back end of the couch.  We hit the rain at the Pratt-Kiowa county line.  We parked there on a cross-road off the highway to try and wait it out.  We got a call from Dad saying he was coming out with some tarps and more rope and tie-downs, so we debated for a bit and decided to wait there a while.

A very nice trooper came over and asked if we needed any help, but since we didn't, he moved on.  Nice guy though.  Not long after, the wind just up and died, and it got REALLY hot for a few seconds before a fresh gust kicked up and it got COLD, in like 30 seconds.  Seeing there was lighting off that way, we decided to head back to Greensburg to wait it out.

After eating some "food" (IE, a bag of tortilla chips and bean-and-cheese salsa dip), we headed East again (it was now about 7-something PM), trying to get to Pratt.  Thankfully between Greensburg and Pratt it was only faint drizzles, and our couch stayed dry.

Dad showed up in Pratt about 9 pm and we got it covered up and strapped .  Keeping in mind we were planning on being in Wichita at about 8:30, we were pretty tired and ready to be done...

Of course, now that we covered the load up completely, it never rained again.  A few droplets but thatw as it.

FINALLY got to my parent's house after 11 pm, and we backed the trailer and truck into the garage to keep it secure, where it will sit until tomorrow when we can move into the new place.  I slept so hard last night I didn't even hear the text message I got at 7-something this morning...

Looking forward to lunch with
r_bear at HuHots :)  Also just getting a day to just relax and not have to worry about anything at all...

Anyway, better wrap this up so we can head out for food.  Just thought you'd all want to hear our massive saga :P

friends, moving, family, travel

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